Chap 166: Destined

Kie quietly entered Tee’s earth tent—spacious and dimly lit by a small fire.

She wore a robe and was wiping tears from her cheeks, but it was too late. He had already heard her sorrow.

She was alone.

Seeing her like that burned something inside him. It reminded him of his own loneliness after fleeing the orphanage—the streets, the silence, the crushing solitude of having no one.

He sat beside her, their upper arms touching lightly.

“All is hopeless,” she whispered. “How many camps have I been to, only to watch them fall again?”

Kie grunted, “I can’t stand depressed people…”

She smiled faintly, remembering him. “I remember your last moments—the seconds before you died in my arms.”

Kie met her gaze. She reached out and gently caressed his face.

“I’m glad you’re here,” she said softly. “Even if you’re the Kie from the past.”

She pressed into him—a simple hug, yet it stole the breath from his lungs. The thin fabric between them barely existed. He could feel her warmth, the soft rise of her chest pressing against his—her nipples.

“You feel... naked,” he murmured, voice roughened by the sudden heat blooming inside him.

Tee’s smile was soft, the kind that glimmered like moonlight skimming over still water. “Sorry… I just really like hugging you,” she murmured, as though even sound might shatter the fragile moment. She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, the motion revealing the flush blooming across her cheeks.

Why did she keep blushing around him? That wasn’t Tee—or at least, not the Tee she showed the world. That was someone stripped bare, someone who knew Kie in ways no one else did. There was a history there, well beyond two months could compare—woven tight between them, pulsing beneath every glance. He could feel it. Her quiet yearning, her unspoken desire curling toward him like heat.

He stared at her—eyes drawn to the gentle part of her robe, where bare skin peeked through. 

She took his hand and placed it gently against her cheek, her eyes locked with his.

"Why am I still the only one able to feel you?” She smiled, “I’m happy it's this way."

Those words confirmed what he’d been aching to know—that Tee did care for him. At least that future Tee did, and it lit something dangerous inside him. 

The yearning he’d buried for so long surged to the surface, uncoiling in his chest. Before he could stop himself, something deep within urged him to cross the line.

His fingers lifted, brushing her cheek, then trailing slowly down to her collarbone.

Ever since Varrak’s intervention, the curse mark on her neck was gone. Now it was bare—soft, slim, and elegant, catching the glow of the firelight as if it had never been touched by darkness.

His gaze drifted downward, to the line of her throat, the softness revealed beneath the part of her robe. Her skin caught the firelight, glowing like gold dust. He wanted to trace every inch with his hands, his mouth.

He couldn’t stop looking. 

She noticed.

And yet, she didn’t move to hide.

Though he had seen Tee nude before, he wondered how much she had changed with time. The two steamy moments he had with his time's Tee went by his mind. Then the thought of that woman crept in with the dimness around him. 

“Karen… I’ve never seen Karen naked," he said quietly, voice wrapped in wonder. “She never let me. But she always liked showing too much. It was distasteful.”

He thought his words would prompt Tee to cover up a bit more. He didn't want to be direct. 

At that, her breath caught.

“Say it,” she whispered. “The chant... to forget Karen. Like your future self once asked me to.” Glowing symbols flickered on his forehead before vanishing.

The chant wrapped his mind in a fragile veil, pushing Karen from his thoughts—but only for the moment. It was a temporary mercy, one his future self had urged her to repeat whenever his words drifted back to that woman. Still, she hadn’t yet discovered how to make the forgetting last forever.

He opened his mouth, but the words faded. All at once, the weight he hadn’t noticed was gone. He felt... lighter. Forgot what he was going to say. 

She leaned in, closing the small distance between them, her fingers warm and lingering as they curved along his jaw. Her breath brushed his lips—an invitation he felt in his chest before his mind could catch up.

He caught her wrist gently and turned his face away.

“We can’t do this,” he said, his voice low, strained.

The moment buzzed between them, heavy and unfinished. It felt like crossing a line he couldn’t see but somehow knew was there. He wasn’t committed to anyone—yet the pull still felt wrong, like a betrayal of something he hadn’t named.

Tee embarrassed, shifting back on the grass and pulling her robe tighter around her. “I have to send you back,” she whispered, her gaze dropping in shame. She knew the real Kie was gone. “I’m getting too attached.”

Before long, Kie found himself back at the place with the Yllithor’s eye. The ground writhed beneath him, crawling with the human-craving mutants.

“I have to kill it... to send you back,” Tee said, tears glistening in her eyes.

Kie felt frozen—helpless. He couldn’t stay there.

“You must stop Varrak. Stop Prodigy. Prevent Project Armageddon.”

Just as before, she summoned dark mana in one hand, blue Ultramana in the other. When she clashed them together, a blinding, powerful light erupted between her palms.

Then, Kie ripped his eyes open. He wasn’t in the medical room, but somewhere else—dim, walls covered with glowing symbols pulsing faintly in the dark.

A chilling, deep female voice echoed through the room. “You’ve awakened.”

Elder Menrith, the elder in a dark purple robe, rose from the shadows. “Tell me, what did you see?”

Kie swallowed hard.

Soon, he was surrounded by the elders, recounting everything—the urgency to stop Varrak and Prodigy.

To his shock, the elders revealed they had recently received messages from the Verge about Prodigy as well. But there was more—another warning about Tee. They said she was destined to destroy the world and had to be stopped.

Kie gasped. “What?”

The elders silenced him with a stern look. “Keep that to yourself. Watch her closely. Make sure she doesn’t fulfill that prophecy.”

Zod, Miko and Saeda were happy to see Kie alive the next morning at breakfast. They seemed less mad at him for not helping to take Tee down at the time. 

Tee however looked him up and down as if he should have stayed in deep sleep a few more days. But deep down, she was happy. She hid her smile with her coffee mug.

Kie still wondered about the moment he denied himself with future Tee. What did her advance on him mean? Were they together? It made no sense. 

Not wanting to keep secrets, he decided to tell his teammates most of what happened, keeping certain details to himself. 

“You went to the future?” Zod gasped. 

“No way,” Saeda mumbled. 

“Really?” Miko asked. Then squeemed with excitement. “Wait Kie. This is the perfect opportunity for a group story time over a camp fire. We haven’t had a group bonding activity in a while.”

Seeing that they had to eat quickly to get ready for training, he couldn’t disagree. Later was a better time to reveal the events. 

Miko had insisted Tee not stay too far away from them, trying to bring the team back together. She begged Tee to come along and so she was.

Zod and Saeda gave her a return look as if they would prefer it otherwise.

Later that evening, as the sun dipped low toward the horizon, painting the sky in warm hues of amber and rose, the five Sentinels found themselves near the beach. 

The soft sand shifted beneath their feet as they walked to a clearing where fallen logs formed a rough circle around a small campfire crackling to life. The salty sea breeze mingled with the scent of burning wood, setting the scene for a rare moment of quiet.

They settled down, each choosing a log, the glow of the fire casting flickering shadows on their faces. All eyes soon turned to Kie, who sat a bit rigid, clearly uncomfortable with the setting. 

Tee caught the subtle grimace tugging at his lips—he hated those “campfire story” moments. But that night was important. He needed to rebuild the fragile trust of his team.

Tee felt her own pulse quicken, anticipation swirling in her chest. She wanted to know everything—what happened to Kie in those lost hours, how he survived, what he saw. She admitted quietly to herself that he was a natural storyteller, perhaps a skill honed from nights buried in DGS. 

If the hero business ever ended, maybe he should write a book about it all. She’d read it. Maybe, just maybe, he’d finally reveal what he really thought of Tee. She sighed softly, caught in a web of hope and doubt.

Kie cleared his throat, steadying himself. He was ready to tell everything, but he obeyed the elders’ strict orders—no mention of Tee’s direct connection to the prophecy, no hint at her deeper role. 

He hesitated as he tried to describe the girl with the stark white hair and pale eyes.

“You mean like a Vergant?” Zod interrupted, curiosity sharp in his voice.

Kie considered the question. “Yeah... she was a Vergant,” he said cautiously. “She could do sorcery, so technically that fits.”

He explained how she was the only one who could actually feel him—the rest of the world just faded through him like a ghost.

“Is she someone we’ve met before?” Zod pressed, eyes narrowing thoughtfully. The only female Vergant Zod recalled was The Lieutenant—but The Lieutenant didn’t have white hair. Then again, people changed.

“Stop interrupting the story,” Saeda snapped sharply, silencing Zod.

Kie pressed on, recounting how the girl quickly realized he’d been sent two years into the future.

“Impossible!” Zod blurted out. “That blast must’ve knocked you into some kind of wonderland.”

Kie shot him a glare, his red eyes flickering in the firelight. “Hey, you wanted to hear the story. I never agreed to this.”

“Please let him finish,” Miko said softly, gently pulling Zod’s hand down. “It’s getting interesting.”

With the room quiet again, Kie described the mutated monsters swarming the world, how the Harbingers had vanished, and how everyone had tried to return to normal — before Prodigy’s catastrophe changed everything.

“So that’s what the Commander’s been so busy working on?” Zod asked, realization dawning.

Kie nodded. “Our next mission is to stop Project Armageddon before it’s too late.”

The fire crackled as the Sentinels stood later in a long hallway leading to the mission base, securing their gloves and exchanging quiet words. Tee lingered on the edge, still feeling like an outsider, her heart heavy with unspoken things.

Miko and Saeda played a quick game of rock-paper-scissors to decide who’d test being the next leader. The playful tension barely masked the weight of what was to come.

Tee’s gaze drifted, and her eyes locked briefly with Kie’s. They both looked away at the same instant.

Tee couldn’t read his expression. It wasn’t the usual sharp command to go after the Seal. It was softer, almost hesitant. She didn’t dare meet his eyes again.

Kie cursed himself inwardly for being caught staring.

The memory of Tee—breathtaking haunted him. He never expected how deeply it would affect him. But the Tee he’d known then was different. The older Tee had the Balance Seal, some cure, a hope he feared he’d never reclaim.

The thought that she had outlived him filled him with both relief and dread. Maybe loneliness wasn’t his fate after all… then his mind crushed the hope. That timeline wasn’t the same. They were going to change things—so that fate was no longer certain.

Tee was a Xeno-victim whether he liked it or not. And there was no cure. 

The game ended. Miko was the next test leader.

Her hands trembled slightly. The mission ahead was more than just a trial. It was the fate of humanity itself.